HAMILTON — As a jury considers the fate of embattled Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo, the township’s Board of Education is determined to authorize a thorough internal investigation regarding any wrongdoing that may have taken place by any board members or school district employees connected with Marliese Ljuba.

Ljuba is the FBI’s cooperating witness in the Bencivengo corruption trial who testified to giving thousands of dollars in bribes to the mayor and former Hamilton school board members. Ljuba also testified to giving thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to influence the April 2011 Hamilton school board election.

Ljuba was working as the health insurance broker for the Hamilton Township School District when she was handing out bribes to influence the school board. Ljuba was earning more than $500,000 in commissions from her broker services and said she doled out bribes and wheeled money to help keep her lucrative job.

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Former school board member Robert Warney, who resigned earlier this year from his six-figure-annual-salary job in Bencivengo’s administration, has admitted he received $10,000 in illegal payments to vote in favor of extending Ljuba’s insurance brokerage contract in 2006.

Ljuba in recent years was working as the district’s broker without a contract. That improper arrangement resulted in the school district being penalized by the state in the form of losing $25,000 in state aid. The school board in May voted to cut its ties with Ljuba and Ljuba’s employer, Allen Associates.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. James Parla at Wednesday’s school board meeting announced he has placed school district business administrator Joseph Tramontana on paid administrative leave until further notice. Parla didn’t explain why he made the move, but his announcement came hours after Ljuba mentioned Tramontana in her testimony.

Ljuba told Tramontana early in the investigation that she was cooperating with the FBI, according to Ljuba’s testimony. Tramontana on Thursday didn’t return a phone message seeking comment for this article. The administrative leave means Tramontana will not come back to work until further notice,

The Board of Education on Wednesday considered how to investigate Ljuba’s impact on the district. The board at first wanted to defer to Parla but later decided to direct school board attorney William Burns to get the ball rolling.

At the Nov. 19 school board meeting, Burns is supposed to present the school board with recommended courses of action on how to investigate.

The school board said any investigation it authorizes must go back to 1996, when Ljuba first entered the scene here, but the investigation has to look beyond Allen Associates and Ljuba.

The board said the investigation must explore any and all vender contracts where the school district spent more than $300,000 to make sure the business dealings were proper. The probe is to explore whether any school board members or district employees engaged in any improprieties with a vendor.

Bencivengo’s defense attorney said Ljuba was Bencivengo’s friend and that the $12,400 he received from Ljuba last year was a “loan,” not a bribe.